memory_alphafandomcom-20200223-history
Forum:Was Elizabeth Dehner stated in dialogue to have a "PhD in psychiatry"?
What was her degree? Hi. I'm trying to improve the PhD article, and according to it, the only canon reference to someone holding a PhD was Elizabeth Dehner. I have seen almost none of TOS and had no idea who this person was. But according to her bio, she was a psychiatrist. Psychiatrists are full-fledged MDs and don't possess PhDs (unless it's in another field – this is different from psychologists, whose terminal degrees are PhDs.) Because I have not seen this episode ( ), I'm curious about whether it explicitly referred to her (such as in dialogue) as a PhD, not an MD. If so, than it's a production gaffe (or by the 23rd century, for some reason psychiatrists no longer receive medical training. But I doubt that, for I've read of other medical personnel who specialize in psychiatry, which, again, is quite different from psychology.) I've seen the pic that clearly identifies her as having a PhD. What I can't figure out is if she was stated to be a psychiatrist or psychologist. (A screen cap does mention "vocational training in psychiatry", but that's unclear: one doesn't refer to 8--12 years of medical school and residency as "vocational training". To me it sounds more like she "dabbled" in some basic psychiatry to augment her actual career, yet the screen cap mentions no other profession.) I'd like to know if she was, in dialogue, referred to chiefly as a "psychiatrist". Otherwise, I would be inclined to question the validity of a zoomed-in screen cap of her personal bio. The guy who made that card could've easily mistook "psychiatrist" for "psychologist". But I don't know. Regardless, I believe we should add a background note about the possible confusion of her having a "PhD in psychiatry" on her page. I don't believe it's a nitpick, for I'm genuinely confused about whether she was a psychiatrist without an MD (which is strange, especially given that she's in the category of "Medical Personnel") or if she was really meant to have been a psychologist. Or if the writers themselves confused the two or decided to divorce psychiatry from medicine in the 23rd century. Does anyone know, or can anyone help clarify it for me? Thank you for your consideration and time. Best, --[[User:Cepstrum|'Cepstrum']] (talk) 16:02, October 26, 2010 (UTC) Note: I tried asking a fairly similar question on her talk page but don't expect an answer there: it's been dormant for three years. Hope I'm not violating etiqutte or MA policies! :Wait until you get an answer there. "Dormant for three years" doesn't mean anything other than there was nothing to talk about for three years. Now that you've brought up something, people will see it in Recent Changes or on their Watchlist and respond. --OuroborosCobra talk 16:12, October 26, 2010 (UTC) ::(Edit conflict with OC) ::The main purpose of the "Reference Desk" is for visiting non-contributors to pose questions that they couldn't find on the wiki - most often not because the info isn't there, but because the search doesn't work properly. Contributors are expected to use available talk pages when discussing specific details of an already existing article, among other reasons because that is where answered Refdesk questions will end up most of the time, anyway. It isn't breaking any hard rule to pose a question here (aside from, perhaps, the guideline to not have confusing duplicate discussions running), but I doubt you'll get a better answer here than on the relevant talk page - which the people checking this space (="us all") have under observation via anyway. -- Cid Highwind 16:19, October 26, 2010 (UTC)